Video: LAPD Reviews Footage of Bryan Stow Attack

Demian Bulwa,

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Los Angeles police detectives are reviewing a video that shows Giants fan Bryan Stow in a brief confrontation with a second man in the stands at Dodger Stadium, where Stow was severely beaten March 31.

The footage, aired Monday by celebrity news website TMZ, shows a man walking over to Stow, who is seated, and point at him with his left hand before walking away.

Stow - in black and orange Giants clothing - appears to try to calm the man, raising both hands. Someone can be heard speaking Spanish, though it is not clear who is talking.

We have a copy of the incident and the detectives are investigating it," said Officer Cleon Joseph, a Los Angeles police spokesman, who declined to comment further.

Stow's family said Monday that the video was difficult to watch because it shows the 42-year-old paramedic from Santa Cruz in good health, just before he was beaten unconscious in the parking lot after the Opening Day game between the Giants and Dodgers. They also said he looked frightened.

"It gives people an idea of how Bryan had to have felt in there," said his sister Bonnie Stow. "Bryan didn't do anything. He didn't respond by getting up and being aggressive back."

"His hands were up, not wanting any problems, and you can tell that," said Stow's other sister, Erin Collins. "The look on his face, that's the worst part about it. He looks shocked and scared. I hope that guy is totally ashamed of how he acted toward Bryan."

The family members said the woman who shot the video had contacted them, telling them that the man who confronted Stow was upset that he and his friends were wearing Giants clothing and cheering for the San Francisco team.

"Bryan was saying, 'Hey, respect the game,' that type of thing," said his mother, Ann Stow.

The man who confronted Stow in the video wore a cap and a blue jersey with the word "Banda" and the number 23. He did not appear to be Giovanni Ramirez, the 31-year-old Los Angeles man whom police have called the prime suspect in Stow's beating.

Ramirez has not been charged, and his attorneys have professed his innocence. He was sentenced to 10 months in prison last week after his state parole was revoked for alleged gun possession.

Stow's family, in a lawsuit filed against the Dodgers, claimed that Stow had been harassed before, during and after the game, with Dodgers fans tossing food at him and his friends in full view of security guards who took no action.

Stow was worried enough that he texted a family member about the "intimidating scene," the lawsuit said.

Stow was attacked after the game as he and his friends walked toward a taxi pickup area, and he suffered a traumatic brain injury.

He was upgraded last week from critical to serious condition at San Francisco General Hospital, where his doctor said he has been able to follow some basic commands but is "far from out of the woods."

Police are still looking for two assailants - a man believed to have joined in kicking and punching Stow, and a woman who drove the attackers from the Dodger Stadium parking lot.